McAuliffe remains vivid to still-grieving NH city

FILE - In this 1986 file photo, Christa McAuliffe, left, and Barbara Morgan, right, laugh during training. A whole generation _ including McAuliffe's own students _ has grown up since McAuliffe and six other astronauts perished on live TV on Jan. 28, 1986, a quarter century ago on Friday, Jan. 28, 2011. Now the former schoolchildren who loved her are making sure that people who weren't even born then know about McAuliffe and her dream of going into space. (AP Photo/NASA, File)
— AP

FILE - In this 1986 file photo, Christa McAuliffe, left, and Barbara Morgan, right, laugh during training. A whole generation _ including McAuliffe's own students _ has grown up since McAuliffe and six other astronauts perished on live TV on Jan. 28, 1986, a quarter century ago on Friday, Jan. 28, 2011. Now the former schoolchildren who loved her are making sure that people who weren't even born then know about McAuliffe and her dream of going into space. (AP Photo/NASA, File)
/ AP

FILE - In this summer 1985 file photo, high school teacher Christa McAuliffe ,second from left, jogs with friends in Concord, N.H. A whole generation _ including McAuliffe's own students _ has grown up since McAuliffe and six other astronauts perished on live TV on Jan. 28, 1986, a quarter century ago on Friday, Jan. 28, 2011. Now the former schoolchildren who loved her are making sure that people who weren't even born then know about McAuliffe and her dream of going into space. (AP Photo/Jim Cole, File)— AP

FILE - In this summer 1985 file photo, high school teacher Christa McAuliffe ,second from left, jogs with friends in Concord, N.H. A whole generation _ including McAuliffe's own students _ has grown up since McAuliffe and six other astronauts perished on live TV on Jan. 28, 1986, a quarter century ago on Friday, Jan. 28, 2011. Now the former schoolchildren who loved her are making sure that people who weren't even born then know about McAuliffe and her dream of going into space. (AP Photo/Jim Cole, File)
/ AP

FILE - In this Oct. 29, 1985 file photo, Christa McAuliffe of Concord, New Hampshire, stands next to Space Shuttle orbiter Challenger at Pad 39-A at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. A whole generation _ including McAuliffe's own students _ has grown up since McAuliffe and six other astronauts perished on live TV on Jan. 28, 1986, a quarter century ago this Friday, Jan. 28. 2011. Now the former schoolchildren who loved her are making sure that people who weren't even born then know about McAuliffe and her dream of going into space. (AP Photo/Jim Neihouse, File)— AP

FILE - In this Oct. 29, 1985 file photo, Christa McAuliffe of Concord, New Hampshire, stands next to Space Shuttle orbiter Challenger at Pad 39-A at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. A whole generation _ including McAuliffe's own students _ has grown up since McAuliffe and six other astronauts perished on live TV on Jan. 28, 1986, a quarter century ago this Friday, Jan. 28. 2011. Now the former schoolchildren who loved her are making sure that people who weren't even born then know about McAuliffe and her dream of going into space. (AP Photo/Jim Neihouse, File)
/ AP

FILE - In this Jan. 28, 1986 file photo, the space shuttle Challenger explodes shortly after lifting off from Kennedy Space Center. A whole generation _ including McAuliffe's own students _ has grown up since McAuliffe and six other astronauts perished on live TV on Jan. 28, 1986, a quarter century ago on Friday, Jan. 28, 2011. Now the former schoolchildren who loved her are making sure that people who weren't even born then know about McAuliffe and her dream of going into space. (AP Photo/Bruce Weaver, File)— AP

FILE - In this Jan. 28, 1986 file photo, the space shuttle Challenger explodes shortly after lifting off from Kennedy Space Center. A whole generation _ including McAuliffe's own students _ has grown up since McAuliffe and six other astronauts perished on live TV on Jan. 28, 1986, a quarter century ago on Friday, Jan. 28, 2011. Now the former schoolchildren who loved her are making sure that people who weren't even born then know about McAuliffe and her dream of going into space. (AP Photo/Bruce Weaver, File)
/ AP

FILE - In this Sept. 30, 1985 file photo, Christa McAuliffe, the space teacher from Concord, New Hampshire, helmeted and ready for the oxygen mask as she prepared for an orientation flight aboard one of the T-28 NASA training planes in Houston, Texas. A whole generation _ including McAuliffe's own students _ has grown up since McAuliffe and six other astronauts perished on live TV on Jan. 28, 1986, a quarter century ago on Friday, Jan. 28, 2011. Now the former schoolchildren who loved her are making sure that people who weren't even born then know about McAuliffe and her dream of going into space. (AP Photo/Ed Kolenovsky, File)— AP

FILE - In this Sept. 30, 1985 file photo, Christa McAuliffe, the space teacher from Concord, New Hampshire, helmeted and ready for the oxygen mask as she prepared for an orientation flight aboard one of the T-28 NASA training planes in Houston, Texas. A whole generation _ including McAuliffe's own students _ has grown up since McAuliffe and six other astronauts perished on live TV on Jan. 28, 1986, a quarter century ago on Friday, Jan. 28, 2011. Now the former schoolchildren who loved her are making sure that people who weren't even born then know about McAuliffe and her dream of going into space. (AP Photo/Ed Kolenovsky, File)
/ AP

FILE - In this summer 1985 file photo, high school teacher Christa McAuliffe ,second from left, jogs with friends in Concord, N.H. A whole generation _ including McAuliffe's own students _ has grown up since McAuliffe and six other astronauts perished on live TV on Jan. 28, 1986, a quarter century ago on Friday, Jan. 28, 2011. Now the former schoolchildren who loved her are making sure that people who weren't even born then know about McAuliffe and her dream of going into space. (AP Photo/Jim Cole, File)— AP

FILE - In this summer 1985 file photo, high school teacher Christa McAuliffe ,second from left, jogs with friends in Concord, N.H. A whole generation _ including McAuliffe's own students _ has grown up since McAuliffe and six other astronauts perished on live TV on Jan. 28, 1986, a quarter century ago on Friday, Jan. 28, 2011. Now the former schoolchildren who loved her are making sure that people who weren't even born then know about McAuliffe and her dream of going into space. (AP Photo/Jim Cole, File)
/ AP

In this photo taken Friday, Jan. 21, 2011 in Concord, N.H., tsnow falls on he gravesite of high school teacher Christa McAuliffe. McAuliffe and the rest of the crew of the space shuttle Challenger died 25-years ago when the shuttle exploded. Before the world knew her as "the teacher in space," McAuliffe was known as a popular, energetic teacher who took a great interest in her students. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)— AP

In this photo taken Friday, Jan. 21, 2011 in Concord, N.H., tsnow falls on he gravesite of high school teacher Christa McAuliffe. McAuliffe and the rest of the crew of the space shuttle Challenger died 25-years ago when the shuttle exploded. Before the world knew her as "the teacher in space," McAuliffe was known as a popular, energetic teacher who took a great interest in her students. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)
/ AP

FILE - In this Sept. 26, 1985 file photo, Christa McAuliffe poses at Johnson Space Center in Houston. A whole generation _ including McAuliffe's own students _ has grown up since McAuliffe and six other astronauts perished on live TV on Jan. 28, 1986, a quarter century ago on Friday, Jan. 28, 2011. Now the former schoolchildren who loved her are making sure that people who weren't even born then know about McAuliffe and her dream of going into space. (AP Photo, File) NO SALES— AP

FILE - In this Sept. 26, 1985 file photo, Christa McAuliffe poses at Johnson Space Center in Houston. A whole generation _ including McAuliffe's own students _ has grown up since McAuliffe and six other astronauts perished on live TV on Jan. 28, 1986, a quarter century ago on Friday, Jan. 28, 2011. Now the former schoolchildren who loved her are making sure that people who weren't even born then know about McAuliffe and her dream of going into space. (AP Photo, File) NO SALES
/ AP

FILE - In this Jan. 28, 1986 file photo, the space shuttle Challenger lifts off Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. A whole generation _ including McAuliffe's own students _ has grown up since McAuliffe and six other astronauts perished on live TV on Jan. 28, 1986, a quarter century ago on Friday, Jan. 28, 2011. Now the former schoolchildren who loved her are making sure that people who weren't even born then know about McAuliffe and her dream of going into space. (AP Photo/NASA)— AP

FILE - In this Jan. 28, 1986 file photo, the space shuttle Challenger lifts off Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. A whole generation _ including McAuliffe's own students _ has grown up since McAuliffe and six other astronauts perished on live TV on Jan. 28, 1986, a quarter century ago on Friday, Jan. 28, 2011. Now the former schoolchildren who loved her are making sure that people who weren't even born then know about McAuliffe and her dream of going into space. (AP Photo/NASA)
/ AP

CONCORD, N.H. 
In the 25 years since the Challenger exploded on liftoff, Felicia Brown has gone to college, become a psychologist, gotten married and had kids. Fresh in her mind, though, is the memory of Christa McAuliffe, a teacher at her high school and family friend who was to be the first teacher in space.

"I know how important her field trip into space was to her and how much she hoped to learn and share with students everywhere," said the Concord High School graduate, who at 43 is now older than McAuliffe was when she died at age 37. "I wouldn't want her sincerity to get lost in a textbook."

A whole generation - including McAuliffe's own students - has grown up since McAuliffe and six other astronauts perished on live TV on Jan. 28, 1986, a quarter century ago this Friday. Now the former schoolchildren who loved her are making sure that people who weren't even born then know about McAuliffe and her dream of going into space.

Students who didn't know her now will when they attend a new school named in her honor.

Concord, a city of about 42,000 where the popular McAuliffe taught social studies, carries her legacy as a source of both fierce pride and painful memory. Some locals had mixed feelings when the name of space pioneer Alan Shepard, a New Hampshire native, was added to a planetarium originally named just for McAuliffe. Some people still tear up at the mention of her name.

But in ways both quiet and public, the city she left behind is making sure she lives on where her husband still resides, her children grew up and her remains are buried.

Brown didn't have McAuliffe as a teacher, but was a family friend and baby-sat for her children. Last spring, when her third-grade daughter had to work on a Concord history project, she encouraged her to devote it to McAuliffe.

Brown's mother, Carol Berry, was watching in person at Cape Canaveral, Fla., when the Challenger blew up. She headed the children's division at the Concord Public Library and worked with McAuliffe on a space-related reading program and had kept a scrapbook of the events leading to the shuttle launch and afterward. She helped with the project and talked to her granddaughter's class.

"It's difficult to have it all brought back to the forefront in my mind again," said Berry, 71. "Every year, I think about it again. I just feel so badly; it took away a lot of talent and what could've been a really wonderful project, experience."

Keeping McAuliffe's memory alive is also important to Holly Merrow, who graduated from Concord High in 1986 and now teaches in Portland, Maine. Merrow, taught by McAuliffe in a class about women in history, recalled that she made lessons fun, interesting and real - and she tries to do the same.

Merrow teaches third grade but for several years taught a lesson about McAuliffe and the Challenger to students in the fifth grade and in middle school. She showed them a scrapbook full of NASA stickers, as well as articles on the explosion and McAuliffe's selection by NASA, in which she was chosen from more than 11,000 applicants in a contest to be the first civilian teacher on a space flight.